the one on
whom our expectation must rest. With Him we are brought into connection
by every sin of ours, and by every hope. Is it not He before whom and
about whom our hearts thrill and tremble time after time with a depth
and awe of emotion which nothing else excites? Is it not to Him we owe
it that this day we live in peace, knowing that our God is a loving
Father? Is it not still His grace we must learn more deeply, His patient
righteous way we must more exactly fall in with, if we are to forget our
loved sin in the love of God, ourselves in the Eternal One? What is
growth in grace but the laying bare of the sinner's heart to Christ,
fold after fold being removed, till the very core of our being opens to
Him and accepts Him, and the reciprocal laying bare of the heart of
Christ toward the sinner?

For this growth in mutual understanding must advance till that perfect
sympathy is attained which Christ indicates in the words: "I know My
sheep and am known of Mine, as the Father knoweth Me and I know the
Father." The mutual understanding between the Eternal Father and the Son
is the only parallel to the mutual understanding of Christ and His
people. In the loving union of husband and wife we see how intimate is
the understanding, how the one is dissatisfied if any anxiety is not
uttered and shared, how there can be no secret on either side. We see
how a slight movement, a look, betrays intention more than many words of
a stranger could reveal it; we see what confidence in one another is
established, how the one is not satisfied until his thought is ratified
by the other, his opinion reflected and better judged in the other, his
emotion partaken of and again expressed by the other. But even this,
though suggestive, is but a suggestion of the mutual intelligence
subsisting between the Father and the Son, the absolute confidence in
one another, the perfect harmony in purpose and feeling, the delight in
knowing and being known. Into this perfect harmony of feeling and of
purpose with the Supreme does Christ introduce His people. Gradually
their thoughts are disengaged from what is trivial, and expand to take
in the designs of the Eternal Mind. Gradually their tastes and
affections are loosened from lower attachments, and are wrought to a
perfect sympathy with what is holy and abiding.

FOOTNOTES:

[35] St. Augustine.

XXII.

_JESUS, SON OF GOD._

"And it was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem: it